I read on the latest "Client Connection" newsletter that you're going to add new Site Applications to existing hosting packages. Your hosting packages are by far the best I've found on the market, but I'd like to share some suggestions based on my experience :roll: .

Anti-virus. Many, many of my customers are asking for an anti-virus protection on their mailboxes. I would really pay some extra $ to have an anti-virus site application. Also, there should be an option to delete infected messages instead of deliver them without viruses.

Mailing list manager. I've been often asked to set up a simple discussion mailing list. Mojo Mail is great for newsletters, but not for discussion lists. I'd like to have something like Sympa (http://www.sympa.org) or Mailman (http://www.list.org) for discussion lists. There should be a web interface for administration and another one for browsing message archives.

Mail-boxes auto-reply. It's (almost) vacation time and some of my customers asked for a simple interface that could let them change autoresponders on their own and -most important- define a period of activity, e.g. "respond with that message from June, 15th to June 30th".

Thanks,
Corrado Fiore

FZ

06-11-2004, 09:11 AM

Just wanted to say that I agree with you completely on the Anti-virus issue - in this day and age I believe it is vital to have one installed on the server side, what with all these high-risk worms/virii going around (and it doesn't seem to be getting any better). Procmail can be used for primitive filtering, but a dedicated anti-virus is what is required. I think somebody pointed out it was possible to get clamav installed, but I think the procedure was very involved and quite difficult. If WestHost could provide an anti-virus that they updated on a regular basis for everyone, that would be great.

As for the mailing list manager, I agree that Mojo Mail is nice, but not "nice enough". For this reason I installed Mailman on my account, and it works perfectly - if you'd like me to help you get started on that (it's a manual process and involves some *Nix knowledge and the use of SSH), let me know.

Autoresponders: if you install them for the e-mail/FTP accounts in question (via your Site Manager), your account users can go to http://yourdomain.com/users/ and change their account settings (e.g. password) as well as define what their autoresponse message would be - instead of you having to do it for them. However, I don't think there is an option to specify the period during which the autoresponder should be active.

WestHost - ZEsser

06-11-2004, 10:12 AM

Corrado &amp; FZ,

Excellent feedback and exactly the kind of information we're interested in to increase the value of our packages to you. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.

dpfaigin

06-11-2004, 12:13 PM

As I've suggested before, an installable emacs package would be nice, simply for those folks who prefer it as an editor and to reduce the amount of network traffic as it is downloaded and installed.

Updating SpamAssassain would be great. When you update these packages, do we need to reinstall them, or doyou update all the virtual machines?

[Related to that, as I work in Computer Security... when patches come out that affect our version of Linux, are they autoapplied by WestHost, or do we need to apply patches ourselves?]

WestHost - MMellor

06-14-2004, 11:08 AM

Hello Dpfaigin,

Any security updates that come out will be updated by us. You will never have to worry about that. If you have any questions on that please let me know.

mdomsch

06-14-2004, 06:12 PM

see http://domsch.com/westhost/ for instructions on building these apps and more on WestHost.

Thanks,
Matt

Hike

09-02-2004, 11:45 AM

As for the mailing list manager, I agree that Mojo Mail is nice, but not "nice enough". For this reason I installed Mailman on my account, and it works perfectly - if you'd like me to help you get started on that (it's a manual process and involves some *Nix knowledge and the use of SSH), let me know.
Hello FZ,
I came across your posting while looking for some help on Mailman installation on a Westhost account.
My problem at the moment: I'm not even sure where to install it. I've read two different versions one saying /home/myusername/mailman the other /usr/local/mailman (for new version of mailman 2.1).
I'd be glad if anyone could give me a hint because I don't want to mess up the server...

Thanks in advance,
Hike

FZ

09-02-2004, 12:11 PM

Hike,

Mine is in /usr/local/mailman

I am using version 2.1.3 - I have not bothered to upgrade to 2.1.5.

Make sure you install according to Matt's instructions (http://www.domsch.com/westhost/)...

Hike

09-02-2004, 12:45 PM

Mine is in /usr/local/mailman

I am using version 2.1.3 - I have not bothered to upgrade to 2.1.5.

Make sure you install according to Matt's instructions (http://www.domsch.com/westhost/)...

Thanks for the immediate reply, FZ!
I guess I will be back soon with some more questions....
Best,
Hike

FZ

09-02-2004, 12:53 PM

No problem - just make sure to start a new thread, it wouldn't really belong in this one.

nsc

09-02-2004, 01:17 PM

I tested Mojo and decided it's good for newsletters but not for discussion mailing lists.

I like Mailman (http://www.list.org/) and I would suggest Westhost to consider it for inclusion in Site Applications.

Tom Howard

09-03-2004, 03:19 PM

I would like to have postgresql available as well as mysql. (phpPgAdmin would be nice too :wink: )